Precision Farming Pride for Farmers

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KVK Puducherry, Puducherry

He cultivated brinjal with precision farming technology. He used the brinjal seedlings raised in protrays obtained from Hitech Nursery at Madagadipet. He raised the crop in an area of 0.8 ha during September 2008 and harvested 150 MT of Brinjal up to March 2009. The farmer could get a gross income to the tune of Rs 12 lakh within six months by selling produce. He used brinjal varieties Koyembedu/ Panrutti which fetches an appreciable price in the market. Convinced by the success of the technology he has expanded the area further to another 1.00 ha with brinjal variety Ujjala and raised the crop during October 2009. Though the crop suffered during the initial period of two months with incessant rains the farmer could manage to obtain 45 MT of brinjal up to May 2010 and could get a gross income of Rs 4.75 Lakh.

VK Puducherry introduced precision farming through a series of activities. Shri Batcha , a farmer of village Pandasozhanallur, Nettapakkam Commune, Puducherry adopted precision farming in his farm under the technical backstopping of KVK. As a first step, KVK enrolled him as a beneficiary under Puducherry Precision Farming Project during 2008. Then he was technically guided in establishing the drip and fertigation structures at 100% subsidy by the Government of Puducherry.

Salient Features
Introduced precision farming in Puducherry with 100% financial suppor t from the Government of Puducherry Shri Batcha successfully adopted the precision farming and cultivated brinjal crop by seedlings raised in protrays Within six months, Shri Batcha obtained a gross income of Rs 14 lakh from 0.8 ha land under precision farming Precision farming created employment to rural women

Interesting to note that his only son Shri Jayaprakash an IT professional who was working at Chennai has moved from Chennai to Puducherry to assist his father in farming as he is confident that precision farming undertaken with appropriate market tie-up will be more remunerative than IT industry. Farmer has keen to organize his fellow farmers into a group farming Puducherry Precision Farming Farmers Association for which he remains as the President. He shares his experiences as a resources person in meetings organized by KVK for the benefit of the fellow farmers.

Shri A. Ramamourti Programme Coordinator Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kurumbapet Puducherry-605 009 Email: pondicherrykvk@yahoo.co.in Ph: 0413-2271352/2271292 Fax: 0413-2279758 Ph: 0413-2206666 (R), M: 09443235329/09442502109

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